The secret of design

00:12 

In the great 1980s movie "The Blues Brothers," there's a scene where John Belushi goes to visit Dan Aykroyd in his apartment in Chicago for the very first time. It's a cramped, tiny space and it's just three feet away from the train tracks. As John sits on Dan's bed, a train goes rushing by, rattling everything in the room. John asks, "How often does that train go by?" Dan replies, "So often, you won't even notice it." And then, something falls off the wall.

00:48 

We all know what he's talking about. As human beings, we get used to everyday things really fast. As a product designer, it's my job to see those everyday things, to feel them, and try to improve upon them. For example, see this piece of fruit? See this little sticker? That sticker wasn't there when I was a kid. But somewhere as the years passed, someone had the bright idea to put that sticker on the fruit. Why? So it could be easier for us to check out at the grocery counter.

01:22 

Well that's great, we can get in and out of the store quickly. But now, there's a new problem. When we get home and we're hungry and we see this ripe, juicy piece of fruit on the counter, we just want to pick it up and eat it. Except now, we have to look for this little sticker. And dig at it with our nails, damaging the flesh. Then rolling up that sticker -- you know what I mean. And then trying to flick it off your fingers. (Applause) It's not fun, not at all.

01:58

But something interesting happened. See the first time you did it, you probably felt those feelings. You just wanted to eat the piece of fruit. You felt upset. You just wanted to dive in. By the 10th time, you started to become less upset and you just started peeling the label off. By the 100th time, at least for me, I became numb to it. I simply picked up the piece of fruit, dug at it with my nails, tried to flick it off, and then wondered, "Was there another sticker?"

02:34

So why is that? Why do we get used to everyday things? Well as human beings, we have limited brain power. And so our brains encode the everyday things we do into habits so we can free up space to learn new things. It's a process called habituation and it's one of the most basic ways, as humans, we learn.

02:56

Now, habituation isn't always bad. Remember learning to drive? I sure do. Your hands clenched at 10 and 2 on the wheel, looking at every single object out there -- the cars, the lights, the pedestrians. It's a nerve-wracking experience. So much so, that I couldn't even talk to anyone else in the car and I couldn't even listen to music. But then something interesting happened. As the weeks went by, driving became easier and easier. You habituated it. It started to become fun and second nature. And then, you could talk to your friends again and listen to music.

03:37

So there's a good reason why our brains habituate things. If we didn't, we'd notice every little detail, all the time. It would be exhausting, and we'd have no time to learn about new things.

03:51

But sometimes, habituation isn't good. If it stops us from noticing the problems that are around us, well, that's bad. And if it stops us from noticing and fixing those problems, well, then that's really bad.

04:06

Comedians know all about this. Jerry Seinfeld's entire career was built on noticing those little details, those idiotic things we do every day that we don't even remember. He tells us about the time he visited his friends and he just wanted to take a comfortable shower. He'd reach out and grab the handle and turn it slightly one way, and it was 100 degrees too hot. And then he'd turn it the other way, and it was 100 degrees too cold. He just wanted a comfortable shower. Now, we've all been there, we just don't remember it. But Jerry did, and that's a comedian's job.

04:44

But designers, innovators and entrepreneurs, it's our job to not just notice those things, but to go one step further and try to fix them.

04:54

See this, this person, this is Mary Anderson. In 1902 in New York City, she was visiting. It was a cold, wet, snowy day and she was warm inside a streetcar. As she was going to her destination, she noticed the driver opening the window to clean off the excess snow so he could drive safely. When he opened the window, though, he let all this cold, wet air inside, making all the passengers miserable. Now probably, most of those passengers just thought, "It's a fact of life, he's got to open the window to clean it. That's just how it is." But Mary didn't. Mary thought, "What if the diver could actually clean the windshield from the inside so that he could stay safe and drive and the passengers could actually stay warm?" So she picked up her sketchbook right then and there, and began drawing what would become the world's first windshield wiper.

05:55

Now as a product designer, I try to learn from people like Mary to try to see the world the way it really is, not the way we think it is. Why? Because it's easy to solve a problem that almost everyone sees. But it's hard to solve a problem that almost no one sees.

06:15

Now some people think you're born with this ability or you're not, as if Mary Anderson was hardwired at birth to see the world more clearly. That wasn't the case for me. I had to work at it. During my years at Apple, Steve Jobs challenged us to come into work every day, to see our products through the eyes of the customer, the new customer, the one that has fears and possible frustrations and hopeful exhilaration that their new technology product could work straightaway for them. He called it staying beginners, and wanted to make sure that we focused on those tiny little details to make them faster, easier and seamless for the new customers.

07:03

So I remember this clearly in the very earliest days of the iPod. See, back in the '90s, being a gadget freak like I am, I would rush out to the store for the very, very latest gadget. I'd take all the time to get to the store, I'd check out, I'd come back home, I'd start to unbox it. And then, there was another little sticker: the one that said, "Charge before use."

07:33

What! I can't believe it! I just spent all this time buying this product and now I have to charge before use. I have to wait what felt like an eternity to use that coveted new toy. It was crazy.

07:45

But you know what? Almost every product back then did that. When it had batteries in it, you had to charge it before you used it. Well, Steve noticed that and he said, "We're not going to let that happen to our product." So what did we do? Typically, when you have a product that has a hard drive in it, you run it for about 30 minutes in the factory to make sure that hard drive's going to be working years later for the customer after they pull it out of the box. What did we do instead? We ran that product for over two hours. Why? Well, first off, we could make a higher quality product, be easy to test, and make sure it was great for the customer. But most importantly, the battery came fully charged right out of the box, ready to use. So that customer, with all that exhilaration, could just start using the product. It was great, and it worked. People liked it.

08:43

Today, almost every product that you get that's battery powered comes out of the box fully charged, even if it doesn't have a hard drive. But back then, we noticed that detail and we fixed it, and now everyone else does that as well. No more, "Charge before use."

09:01

So why am I telling you this? Well, it's seeing the invisible problem, not just the obvious problem, that's important, not just for product design, but for everything we do. You see, there are invisible problems all around us, ones we can solve. But first we need to see them, to feel them.

09:23

So, I'm hesitant to give you any tips about neuroscience or psychology. There's far too many experienced people in the TED community who would know much more about that than I ever will. But let me leave you with a few tips that I do, that we all can do, to fight habituation.

09:41

My first tip is to look broader. You see, when you're tackling a problem, sometimes, there are a lot of steps that lead up to that problem. And sometimes, a lot of steps after it. If you can take a step back and look broader, maybe you can change some of those boxes before the problem. Maybe you can combine them. Maybe you can remove them altogether to make that better.

10:05

Take thermostats, for instance. In the 1900s when they first came out, they were really simple to use. You could turn them up or turn them down. People understood them. But in the 1970s, the energy crisis struck, and customers started thinking about how to save energy. So what happened? Thermostat designers decided to add a new step. Instead of just turning up and down, you now had to program it. So you could tell it the temperature you wanted at a certain time. Now that seemed great. Every thermostat had started adding that feature. But it turned out that no one saved any energy. Now, why is that? Well, people couldn't predict the future. They just didn't know how their weeks would change season to season, year to year. So no one was saving energy, and what happened?

10:56

Thermostat designers went back to the drawing board and they focused on that programming step. They made better U.I.s, they made better documentation. But still, years later, people were not saving any energy because they just couldn't predict the future. So what did we do? We put a machine-learning algorithm in instead of the programming that would simply watch when you turned it up and down, when you liked a certain temperature when you got up, or when you went away. And you know what? It worked. People are saving energy without any programming.

11:34

So, it doesn't matter what you're doing. If you take a step back and look at all the boxes, maybe there's a way to remove one or combine them so that you can make that process much simpler. So that's my first tip: look broader.

11:49

For my second tip, it's to look closer. One of my greatest teachers was my grandfather. He taught me all about the world. He taught me how things were built and how they were repaired, the tools and techniques necessary to make a successful project. I remember one story he told me about screws, and about how you need to have the right screw for the right job. There are many different screws: wood screws, metal screws, anchors, concrete screws, the list went on and on. Our job is to make products that are easy to install for all of our customs themselves without professionals. So what did we do? I remembered that story that my grandfather told me, and so we thought, "How many different screws can we put in the box? Was it going to be two, three, four, five? Because there's so many different wall types." So we thought about it, we optimized it, and we came up with three different screws to put in the box. We thought that was going to solve the problem. But it turned out, it didn't.

13:00

So we shipped the product, and people weren't having a great experience. So what did we do? We went back to the drawing board just instantly after we figured out we didn't get it right. And we designed a special screw, a custom screw, much to the chagrin of our investors. They were like, "Why are you spending so much time on a little screw? Get out there and sell more!" And we said, "We will sell more if we get this right." And it turned out, we did. With that custom little screw, there was just one screw in the box, that was easy to mount and put on the wall.

13:36

So if we focus on those tiny details, the ones we may not see and we look at them as we say, "Are those important or is that the way we've always done it? Maybe there's a way to get rid of those."

13:53

So my last piece of advice is to think younger. Every day, I'm confronted with interesting questions from my three young kids. They come up with questions like, "Why can't cars fly around traffic?" Or, "Why don't my shoelaces have Velcro instead?" Sometimes, those questions are smart. My son came to me the other day and I asked him, "Go run out to the mailbox and check it." He looked at me, puzzled, and said, "Why doesn't the mailbox just check itself and tell us when it has mail?" (Laughter) I was like, "That's a pretty good question." So, they can ask tons of questions and sometimes we find out we just don't have the right answers. We say, "Son, that's just the way the world works." So the more we're exposed to something, the more we get used to it. But kids haven't been around long enough to get used to those things. And so when they run into problems, they immediately try to solve them, and sometimes they find a better way, and that way really is better.

15:07

So my advice that we take to heart is to have young people on your team, or people with young minds. Because if you have those young minds, they cause everyone in the room to think younger. Picasso once said, "Every child is an artist. The problem is when he or she grows up, is how to remain an artist." We all saw the world more clearly when we saw it for the first time, before a lifetime of habits got in the way. Our challenge is to get back there, to feel that frustration, to see those little details, to look broader, look closer, and to think younger so we can stay beginners.

15:55

It's not easy. It requires us pushing back against one of the most basic ways we make sense of the world. But if we do, we could do some pretty amazing things. For me, hopefully, that's better product design. For you, that could mean something else, something powerful.

16:17

Our challenge is to wake up each day and say, "How can I experience the world better?" And if we do, maybe, just maybe, we can get rid of these dumb little stickers.

16:33

Thank you very much.

16:34

(Applause)

Somewhere in America

Here in America and every single state they have a set of standards for every subject, a collection of lessons that the teacher’s required to teach by the end of the term. But the greatest lessons you will ever teach us will not come from your syllabus. The greatest lesssons you will ever teach us you will not even remember.

You never told us what we weren’t allowed to say. We just learned how to hold our tongues.

Now somewhere in America there is a child holding a copy of ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and there is a child holding a gun. But only one of these things have been banned by their state government and, it’s not the one that can rip through flesh, it’s the one that says “‘F’ You” on more pages than one.

Because we must control what people say. how they think. And if they want to become the overseer of their own selves then we’ll show them a real one.

And somewhere in America there is a child sitting at his mother’s computer reading the home page of the KKK’s website and that’s open to the public. But that child will have never read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ because his school has banned it for it’s use of the ‘N’-word.

Maya Angelou is prohibited because we’re not allowed to talk about rape in school. We are taught that just because something happens doesn’t mean we are to talk about it.

They build us brand new shopping malls so we’ll forget where we’re really standing – ON THE BONES of the Hispanics, ON THE BONES of the slaves, ON THE BONES of the Native Americans, ON THE BONES of those who fought just to speak.

Transcontinental railroads to Japanese internment camps. There are things missing from our history books. But we were taught that it is better to be silent than to make them uncomfortable.

Somewhere in America private school girls search for hours through boutiques trying to find the prom dress of their dreams; while kids on the south side spend hours searching through the lost and found ’cause winter’s coming soon and that’s the only jacket they have.

Kids are late to class for working the midnight shift. They give awards for best attendance but not for keeping your family off the streets.

These kids will call your music ghetto. They will tell you you don’t talk right. Then they’ll get in the backseat of a car with all their friends singing how they’re “‘Bout that life” and “We can’t stop”. Source: LYBIO.net

Somewhere in America schools are promoting self confidence while they whip out their scales and shout out your body fat percentage in class. Where the heftier girls are hiding away and the slim fit beauties can’t help but giggle with pride.

The preppy kids go thrift shopping because they think it sounds fun. But we go ’cause that’s all we’ve got money for ’cause mama works for the city; mama only gets paid once a month.

Somewhere in America a girl is getting felt up by a grown man on a subway. She’s still in her school uniform and that’s part of the appeal. It’s hard to run in knee socks and Mary Jane’s and all her male teachers know it, too.

Coaches cover up star players raping freshmen after the dance. Women are killed for rejecting a date but God forbid I bring my girlfriend to prom.

A girl is blackout drunk at the after party. Take a picture before her wounds wake her. How many pixels is your sanity worth?

What’s a 4.0 to a cold jury?

What’d you learn in class today? Don’t talk loud, don’t speak loud, keep your hands to yourself, keep your head down. Keep your eyes on your own paper. If you don’t know the answer fill in C.

Always wear ear-buds when you ride the bus alone. If you think that someone’s following you pretend you’re on the phone.

A teacher never fails. Only you do.

Every state in America.

The greatest lessons are the ones you don’t remember learning.

– Belissa Escobedo, Rhiannon McGavin, and Zariya Allen.

Get Lit | Words Ignite – increasing teen literacy.

www.getlit.org

Intelligence

For a long time it was believed that intelligence was something we could detect through a test called IQ. However, researchers have been trying to understand the different areas of intelligence and now they say that everyone has a kind of intelligence that can be developed day by day. For instance, some people are excellent at math, others are good at giving speeches and others are better at playing an instrument.

In my opinion, regardless of whether people have a type of intelligence, these people have a kind of “weird” behavior. They sometimes look like being in other world when doing something special because they pay all their attention to what they are doing. 

Moreover, some of them are leaders, some of them are musicians, writers, poets and so on. This kind of people becomes famous and contributors to the art and culture. Nevertheless, looking so different from others they sometimes get sick and mad. I wonder that’s bad for them and their family.

To conclude, we can be an extraordinary human who stands out among the rest over this world because of our abilities and capacities developed in our life. As a result, we can have a beautiful mind, but perhaps we could suffer some difficulties for being like this.

Sleep well to use the time

As they say, “the early bird catches the worm”, I prefer to start the day early in the morning and go to work with full energy to tackle difficult projects every day.

On one hand, when I get up early, I have enough time to have a shower, have my breakfast and arrive at work on time, which make me feel unstressed. On the contrary, when I get up late, I do not have time to neither shave nor have breakfast and I drive fast to work, which put me at risk.

On the other hand, we must be careful when working till late at night since doctors recommend us 7 or 8 hours of sleep to function the best. According to them if we don't sleep enough, for a long period, it will hurt our body and we will get weaker. 

In conclusion, I prefer to go to bed early in the evening and get up early in the morning. I think I become more productive, the quality of my work improves and I enjoy my life. 

The magic of the movies

Since movies come in various genres such as thrillers, comedies, love story, science fiction, westerns, and so on, watching them is an entertainment. Many people have a certain movie that is their favorite. I personally enjoy watching different kinds of movies. Most of the time, I watch comedy movies, but I rather watch thrillers because they push me on the edge.

From my point of view, a good movie needs to have several unexpected twists in the plot and an interesting story to tell. Therefore, the writer and the director must have a lot of communication in order to get a beautifully acted drama as well as moving and shocking scenes. The talent of the actors also takes an essential part when performing the play since they have to bring the characters to life.

On the other hand, special effects are important in the movie, so that we need to feel the scenes through the music and the visuals. Without them, the movie would be boring and weird.

In conclusion, if I want to go to the movies I always read the reviews and watch the trailer to get a general idea about the movie I pretend to enjoy then I get ready with the popcorns.

Tattooing

The popularity of tattooing has increased dramatically, especially among teenagers. Tattooing has been a cultural practice for centuries and teenagers are starting to take on this so-called form of art, maybe because they assume that tattoos make them more attractive. 

Although teen agers feel that getting a tattoo is the in thing to do, it is sometimes a serious problem. I think rebellion and social status are the main reasons why teens get their skin tattooed.

Teens have their body tattooed as a form of expression and freedom just to show the world that they can do as they please. In fact, some of them say that it made them feel more rebellious and attractive. Moreover, having a tattoo give them a sense of belonging to their friends and sometimes to reach a social status as well.

In my opinion, youngsters must think over the consequences of having a permanent mark on their body when they grow up

The Best Laid Plan

By Marilyn Rudenstein

“Aunt Ginny’s having a hard time coping with Freddie’s death, Sarah. Nothing I do seems to help her get over it. Do you have any suggestions?” “

Who on earth is Freddie?” I said. 

My mother groaned, as usual, when I talk to her. “You know, the little dog she loved so much.” 

“Oh, yeah, I forgot its name.” 

My mother’s question surprised me this Saturday morning. She doesn’t often ask me for advice about anything. If she turns to anyone, since my parents are divorced, it’s usually one of my older brothers who are already in college. As for Aunt Ginny, I hadn’t had much to do with her for the past few years, being very busy with music, school, parties and sports —first at Little Harbour and now Portsmouth Middle School where I’m in eighth grade. Ginny is my mother’s older sister and she lives alone in the Margeson Apartments, not too far from my own house. She was born with a brain injury, which left her mentally and physically challenged. However, she still walks down Route 1 to her part-time job at one of the fast food places down there and my mother says Ginny is very proud of herself for that accomplishment. The job, and caring for her little dog, Freddie, seemed to provide her with a satisfactory quality of life, my mother often said, at least for the last fourteen years I’ve known about. 

Suddenly, helping Aunt Ginny became very important to me. I pictured myself single-handedly providing her with such an exciting day, today, that she would feel really happy and forget about Freddie. I, personally don’t think it’s such a big deal to lose a pet, but then I’ve never cared particularly for animals myself. 

“Maybe I can help, Mom. I’ll call her up and ask her to go downtown with me today —we can eat lunch at that funky Friendly Toast and then go somewhere for ice cream. I bet Aunt Ginny would love to spend some time with me. Yes, that’s it. Sorry, Mom, looks like you won’t have my sterling company for a few hours. Gotta call Aunt Ginny.” 

I walked over to Ginny’s apartment to pick her up. I was loaded with money to do all the great things I was thinking of, and pretty pleased with myself for being so extraordinarily kind.

 I was a bit self-conscious being seen with Ginny because she’s very heavy, walks with a limp and has a speech impediment. I was thinking how people would be wondering why a pretty girl like me was hanging around with someone like her. Maybe they would think I was her caretaker, or something, which would not be as embarrassing. We took the trolley downtown and started off in Prescott Park, looking at the beautiful flowers and the boats in the river. I purposely didn’t bring up Freddie, as I didn’t want to spoil the day for Aunt Ginny. Instead, I chatted on about myself and all the fun things I’ve been doing, my soccer games and crushes, best friends and all the computer stuff I was learning. She was a good listener and I did most of the talking. I figured there would be less pressure on her that way. Also, my stuff is really interesting! 

When I got tired of the park, I took Aunt Ginny over to that fun restaurant, a few blocks away. Aunt Ginny said she loved her lunch even though she didn’t eat much and seemed a little distracted by all the unusual people and cool things going on at the restaurant I chose. Sometimes, because of her responses, I wasn’t sure she could adequately hear or understand everything I was telling her about. But that didn’t matter to me because I was sure she was just happy being with me, her only niece. Next we went to Annabelle’s for ice cream and we did some window-shopping as we walked back to my aunt’s apartment. I was feeling pretty good about how everything went and was imagining how I would tell my mother about what a good job I did cheering Aunt Ginny up. “

Thank you, Sarah, I had a really nice time today. Now I think I’ll go lie down for a while to rest up from the walk. I wish Freddie were here to lie down with me like he always used to.” With that Aunt Ginny made a sad face and rushed off into her bedroom.

I went down in the elevator and walked slowly back home suddenly feeling a little more perplexed than gratified and not so cocksure of myself —anymore. It unnerved me when I started to feel uneasy, as I couldn’t really put my finger on the reason for my discomfort. I certainly did not feel as good as I did when I started out on my mission that morning. “

How did it go, Sarah? Did you manage to cheer Ginny up a bit?” 

“Of course I did; I told you I would, Ma. Well, actually I thought I did, but now maybe I’m not so sure. The last thing she said was something about missing Freddie lying on the bed with her. Maybe we should just get her another dog and that’ll be the end of it.” 

“I suggested that already but she was adamantly certain she didn’t want a new pet, at least not yet.” 

“What does adamantly mean?” 

“Definitely.” 

“Oh.” 

I put Ginny out of my mind, which wasn’t very hard to do. In fact, she went out of my thoughts quite easily. It wasn’t until I happened upon a TV documentary a couple of weeks later that Aunt Ginny vaguely passed through my mind again. The show took place in a veteran’s hospital and apparently attempted to focus in on how the veterans coped with their pain and depression and passed the time until they were released. It was very sad. In the beginning, we just saw men lying in beds, many with different parts of their bodies missing, while the nurses and doctors administered to their needs. Occasionally, the men talked to one another. There were a lot of gripes, tears, and talk of all the losses they were experiencing. 

It was so full of misery that I finally decided to shut it off just as the scene shifted to some vets in a little group around a large table. Most of them were in wheelchairs or propped up in awkward positions. The camera zeroed in on the men’s faces, or what was left of them, as they reminisced about the war. I expected to hear more of the terrible tales of death and losing buddies and limbs, but instead they mostly had smiles on their faces, well almost smiles. 

They were talking about the good times they had had with their old buddies before some of them were ripped apart or killed in the war. Each of them seemed to have a funny story to relate which most of the others found amusing. It was much less despairing to watch this portion of the documentary and I continued to do so until they switched back to the miserable parts. 

That night, I couldn’t help thinking about the documentary, and the looks on the men’s faces when they were talking about the happy experiences in their past. My thoughts drifted between these images and pictures of Aunt Ginny’s sad face when I left her apartment that Saturday. I have no idea why that television program and Aunt Ginny kept getting mixed up in my mind. 

The next weekend I was running some errands downtown and bumped into Aunt Ginny coming out of the Post Office. 

“How are you, Aunt Ginny?” 

“Fine,” she said, with tears welling up in her eyes. 

“You know, why don’t we go back to your apartment and have some iced tea or juice together. I’ve got time before I have to meet my friends.”

“Oh, that will be nice, Sarah.” 

When we got up to Ginny’s apartment, she started to prepare some iced tea and took out some cookies and put them on the kitchen table. We sat down together, and this time, for some reason, I didn’t start talking at her right away. In fact, I just sat there, occasionally remarking upon the good cookies and iced drink. Aunt Ginny sat there sort of staring into space until her eyes got a little watery and I asked her what she was thinking about. She shifted her eyes to mine and started telling me about how cute Freddie was when he was just a little puppy. As we spoke, I frequently asked her little questions about her favorite memories of Freddie and what kinds of things they did together. While chatting, Aunt Ginny’s face brightened just a little bit and she started speaking more animatedly than I had ever heard her before. At first I found it endearing, but then I started to get bored out of my mind listening to her babble on and on about some dog I couldn’t even remember. Her speech defect was grating on my nerves so much that I had an impulse to pinch her lips together so that she couldn’t torture me with another sound. 

Finally, I just interrupted her in the middle of a sentence since it was her fault she was so boring and didn’t even care about who had to listen to her constant banter.

I said, “Aunt Ginny, do you have any photographs of Freddie?” I figured we could look briefly at the pictures and then I could make a quick getaway. 

“Oh, yes, yes, lots. Would you like to see some?” Aunt Ginny quickly brought out a great big envelope filled with snapshots of Freddie going all the way back to when he was a little puppy. She laughed and obviously was having a good time showing them to me. 

At this point, since she had become so annoying and inconsiderate of my feelings, I had no choice but to stand up and say, “Aunt Ginny, why don’t you just buy yourself a photo album and put the pictures in it?” 

With that said, I whisked myself out of there and hightailed it down to Market Square to see if I could join up with my friends. 

That night, I realized that something went wrong between me and my aunt and that I didn’t accomplish my goal again. Briefly, I thought it might have something to do with my lack of patience and consideration. I sure as heck wasn’t going to sit down with my mother and discuss it, though. Maybe when I’m older, I said to myself as I drifted off to sleep.